Cole Hamels turned in another brilliant start last night, racking up a season-high 13 strikeouts while holding the Marlins to one run in 6.1 innings for his fourth straight victory.
Even with the winning streak Hamels’ win-loss record stands at just 11-10, but that vastly understates how fantastic he’s been all season and how dominant he’s been since the All-Star break. In fact, among pitchers with at least 10 starts in the second half his 1.96 ERA leads the NL and only Felix Hernandez at 1.64 has a lower mark in the AL.
He’s only 4-3 during that time, but the lack of wins is hardly Hamels’ fault. In the second half alone he’s lost twice while allowing just one run and also has four no-decisions in Quality Starts. With some decent support from the lineup and bullpen he could easily be something like 8-1 with a 1.96 ERA, .200 opponents’ batting average, and 94/17 K/BB ratio in 84.2 innings spread over 12 starts since the break.
And come playoff time he’ll be the Phillies’ third starter.

Trev, you hit the nail on the head. He just doesn’t know how to win. Ha! I think in Cole’s case he’s like awww hell no, who’s the Phillies Ace again? I’m sure he’s sick of hearing about the tale of two Roy’s and even more so after the whole Lee fiasco. Good for him, I always knew he has the makings of a top ace. He just had to adjust to batters adjusting to him and his two pitches he used to get by on. I also think watching the two Roys throw just about every pitch ever invented made him see the error of his ways. Two trick ponies will not make it very far in the Major leagues. Unless he want to be a closer….

If you take a look at the stats a little closer, you’ll see that Cole Hamels has a 0 homeruns this year and a terrible average. He clearly is not doing what it takes to win and is pathetic 11-10 record shows this.
Seriously though, can you guys at least start putting his picture second in the Phillies’ “Big 3″ pitching lineup that has been posted 15 times the past week. He is the real deal.

He actually has full year lower full year ERA and WHIP than CC, as well as more K’s by a good margin. Can Cole somehow be awarded honorary AL Cy Young Runner-Up to Felix?
Ha! The third starter on the Phillies is better than CC. I think that is an argument in Felix’s favor, or why the Phils will lay waste to any team that opposes them in the playoffs. Or both.

It also speaks volumes about how disastrous this season has gone for the Ms, since they splurged for Figgins and stole Cliffy from the Phightins–not that Rube put up a fight. Damn…just looking at what they had, they should be ripping it up. And I’m not talking about ripping up the tickets to the playoffs. I guess Miltonmania has far-reaching detrimental effects.

With the Iron Giant batting four times while clearly preparing to tour the junior circuit this year, if that golf swing he kept bringing to the plate last night was any indication (thought it must be asked, what better way to spend his time at this point in the Feesh’s forgettable season of mediocrity?), Hamels could have set a personal K record for himself with a whiffleball.